There is a variety of chew toys available that serve the individual, as well as the combined purposes of entertaining an animal and non-invasively cleaning an animal's teeth. Animals are subject to a variety of dental problems. Often it is difficult to treat these dental problems through traditional methods, such as brushing, and a number of chew toys have been developed to treat dental problems by providing toys that create sufficient interest through entertainment, or other means, to get the animal to chew upon the toy. Providing an animal with chew toys also helps to develop the teeth and jaw of an animal and satiates the animal's desire to chew.
Examples of chew toys include but are not limited to the following. U.S. Pat. No. 6,360,693 discloses an apparatus for use as a toy by an animal that resembles a branch in appearance. U.S. Pat. No. 6,148,771 reports a chew article of elastomeric material having an outer surface with a number of groves. Furthermore, there is an interior cavity into which edible material can be held and released in a controlled manner while using the chew article. U.S. Pat. No. 5,339,771 discusses a chew toy molded from synthetic plastic. Animal meal is dispersed through out the synthetic plastic. U.S. Pat. No. 4,771,733 describes a chewable object or toy formed of a polyurethane resin with an aqueous based flavor or odor incorporated therein. These examples may provide, among other features, hard surfaces which reportedly help to provide dental prophylaxis.
Furthermore, numerous devices have been developed that use fiber or fibrous materials. Reportedly, the fibrous material also aid in improving the dental hygiene of pets by cleaning between the animal's teeth when chewed upon. Examples of such devices include, but are not limited to the following. U.S. Pat. No. 6,672,252 discloses a chew that comprises a ductile material that holds inclusions. The inclusions may contain fibers, hard components and mixtures thereof. The inclusions work in conjunction with the ductile substrate material to perform as a tooth-cleaning component or components. U.S. Pat. No. 5,174,243 discloses a chew toy that comprises a shaft portion and a pair of knuckle or end members. The knuckle or end members define recessed areas adapted to receive the ends of the shaft portion. U.S. Pat. No. 5,148,770 discloses a chew toy comprised of a pair of cattle hooves and a length of flexible cotton rope secured to and extending between the cattle hooves.
In addition to the variety of chewing desires and needs of different animals, there may also be the consideration that as one lowers the hardness of a material designated for chewing, the strength of a given chewing action may overcome the strength of the material, and the chew may be susceptible to more rapid destruction. In that regard, efforts have been made to provide a chew toy that maintains the interest of an animal in a soft chewing medium, but which soft chew medium maintains itself intact in the chewing environment.
Another consideration in the sales and marketing of chew toys, such as animal chews, may be the ability to attract the animal to play with the chew toy and to attract the owner to purchase the chew toy for the animal. Typically, the chew toy is colored by including pigments in the resin used to manufacturer the toy. It may be advantageous to provide a decorative pattern on the outer surface of the chew toy which “catches the eye” of the owner and/or animal. Molding a fabric as a portion of the outer layer of such toys may accomplish such a task.
As can be seen from the above, several variations of animal chew toys have been developed utilizing fiber combinations with polymers or animal by-products. However, a need remains to advance the state of the prior art products to improve the efficiency of molding a given chew toy and its method of manufacture such that discrete portions of the toy may include a fabric covering to enhance the dental hygiene and entertainment requirements of the animal.
There is therefore a need in the pet chew toy field for a pet chew toy that provides both entertainment and dental hygiene having rubber or polymer material and fibrous portions that may be more efficiently produced as combined in a single molding. It is an object of the present invention to provide an animal chew toy and a method to form the chew toy chew in which a fabric material may be selectively applied to a surface of the toy resulting in a chew product having rubber or polymer material and fabric portions.